Having success in the Champions Hockey League means putting it all out there on the ice and giving it your best effort as Europe’s finest battle for every point. This is how many players view the CHL and Scott Conway of the Belfast Giants and Petr Vrána of Oceláři Třinec are no different.
“You’re playing against the best teams in Europe and they’re not gonna let off. All I can say is we gave it our all out there today and we came out with a win there,” explained Conway.
Vrána, too, believes his side did everything they could to earn the extra points but despite their best efforts, they came up short: “We gave it all we had left, it just wasn’t good enough.”
Conway netted his second of the season on the powerplay to make it 2-0 midway through the game, as Belfast became the beneficiaries of the biggest lead they had had to date this CHL season and their fans didn’t hold back their excitement.
“You can’t beat our fanbase,” said Conway who added that some of the credit for their win should go the Belfast faithful who, “were pretty loud tonight and gave us energy.”
But even with that energy spurring them on, the home side wasn’t able to contain the Czechs for long and Třinec wouldn’t go quietly as Vrána would spark the comeback ten minutes into the final period. “We came back in the game. Great for us, great character to come back into game,” he noted.
With their second goal coming eight minutes later, it seemed the visitors had found their stride. But with nothing happening in the extra session and a failure to convert in the shootout, it left Třinec disappointed.
It was, “tough to lose in the shootout. With all due respect to Belfast, our game wasn’t good," Vrána said.
"You’re playing against the best teams in Europe and they’re not gonna let off"Scott Conway of the Belfast Giants
Moving forward, Vrána understands there are areas that need addressing as Třinec prepare to suit up for their regular season opener in the Czech Extraliga, “We’re going to start our regular season and hopefully we get the things we want to work on going in our game.”
As for Conway, he was happy his team could bring that win back for the fans since, “that’s what we’re aiming to do.” With two more important match-ups on tap, the centreman’s mentality towards the future is simple: “We still have two games to play and we need to come out with two wins.”